A safety ski binding of the above-mentioned type is substantially described in Austrian Pat. No. 245 448. In this known construction, the holding jaw is constructed as a side jaw which is common in ski bindings which have safety tensioning means. The swivel axis is arranged in the heel area. The jaw plate is thereby supported on the front part of the swivel plate and is constructed with respect to said swivel plate rotatably about an axis which is cut by the longitudinal center line of said swivel plate and which is perpendicular with respect to the upper surface of the ski. The jaw plate is locked against rotation in the center position of the swivel plate, which locking is cancelled during a swinging out of the swivel plate. Since the release of the ski boot through two swingable axes and, in addition, a longitudinal shift of one of the locked parts is needed, it is slightly complicated. The disadvantage of this construction consists further in that the ski boot is difficult to remove from the entire ski binding after a fall, even when according to the described construction an increased release is assured.
German OS No. 25 10 385 furthermore describes a front jaw, which after a predetermined swivelling path of the ski boot, is released from a locking engagement and is moved away from the tip of the ski boot through the action of a spring. As a result, an increased assurance for release of the ski boot from the ski binding parts is achieved, however, the additional requirements needed for this are hardly in tune with the degree of success. Moreover, the control elements which necessarily are of large dimensions in some of the embodiments described in this reference are not only connected with an increased danger of wear, they are also susceptible to breakdown. The return can only be done manually.
The purpose of the invention is now to provide in a front jaw of the above-mentioned type a specially operatively safe device which even under difficult ground and environmental conditions functions perfectly and after the release occurs causes an automatic return.
The set goal is achieved inventively by providing a locking part which engages the jaw plate through connecting pieces and which is loaded by a spring, which locking part is in the closed position (downhill position) of the binding locked by an arm of a rocking lever which can be pivoted through a limited range against the force of a spring about an axis which is positioned substantially parallel to the upper side of the ski and extends transversely to the longitudinal axis of the ski, the other arm of which rocking lever is in this position of the binding held in position pressed against a ski-fixed control member by a spring force and is released from the latter through swivelling upon the occurrence of an overload, and by returning the jaw into the initial position (and thus the sole plate) after the release of the ski boot has taken place caused by a return spring.
Due to the fact that a rocking lever and a locking part functioning as a locking mechanism which can become engaged and disengaged from same are provided and both the rocking lever and also the locking part are spring-loaded, the set goal is achieved satisfactorily. The outer forces which act onto the rocking lever cannot cause an unintended release operation, because the rocking lever is supported through the ski-fixed control member and reacts only to lateral stresses (to lateral swivelling forces). Since the sole plate in turn brings about through the locking mechanism which exists in the heel area a lateral swivelling of the sole plate both during the occurrence of purely lateral forces and also during so-called diagonal forces, it is assured that upon occurrence of a force which is dangerous for the foot of the skier a release operation is initiated. Whether such a release operation is indeed carried out, depends on the duration of the overload. Temporarily occurring impacts can be absorbed by the binding without introducing the final release operation; the binding has a sufficient amount of elasticity.